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Review
. 2014 Aug;30(3):421-42.
doi: 10.1016/j.cger.2014.04.001. Epub 2014 Jun 12.

Dementia and cognitive impairment: epidemiology, diagnosis, and treatment

Julie Hugo  1 , Mary Ganguli  2
Affiliations
Review

Dementia and cognitive impairment: epidemiology, diagnosis, and treatment

Julie Hugo et al. Clin Geriatr Med. 2014 Aug.

Abstract

Symptoms of memory loss are caused by a range of cognitive abilities or a general cognitive decline, and not just memory. Clinicians can diagnose the syndromes of dementia (major neurocognitive disorder) and mild cognitive impairment (mild neurocognitive disorder) based on history, examination, and appropriate objective assessments, using standard criteria such as Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition. They can then diagnose the causal subtypes of these syndromes using standard criteria for each of them. Brain imaging and biomarkers are making progress in the differential diagnoses among the different disorders. Treatments are still mostly symptomatic.

Keywords: Alzheimer's disease; Biomarkers; Diagnosis; Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5); Mild cognitive impairment (MCI); National Institute on Aging–Alzheimer’s Association (NIA-AA) guidelines; Neurocognitive disorder; Risk factors.

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